Germany will host Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks in Berlin

To resolve the decades-long conflict between the two countries, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will hold bilateral and trilateral talks with her Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts on Wednesday and Thursday in Berlin.

The two countries have been sparring over the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region since the early 1990s.

In mid-2023, violence erupted anew when Azerbaijan’s armed forces started an assault on the territory and recaptured it, driving the remaining Armenian population out of the area.

Germany is now leading another attempt at reconciling the two former Soviet states.

Germany and Europe are “ready to do their utmost” to support a peace agreement, the foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.

Talks between Baerbock, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov are set to take place behind closed doors.

Berlin’s involvement dates back to November when Baerbock (Greens) visited the two countries while offering to support their peace talks.

Following Baerbock’s offer, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, S&D) arranged a brief trilateral meeting at the Munich Security Conference two weeks ago, including Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Both sides agreed to “resolve the existing differences (…) exclusively by peaceful means and without the use of force”, a spokesperson of the German government said afterwards.

A spokesperson of the Armenian foreign ministry confirmed on Monday on social media that the meeting would take place based on “the agreement reached at the Munich trilateral talks”.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains complicated.

Located between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the region is internationally recognised as part of the latter. However, Armenians gained control of the territory, inhabited by a sizeable Armenian population, during the First Karabakh War from 1992 through 1994.

Azerbaijan recaptured parts of it in 2020 and ultimately took it entirely three years later, prompting resident Armenians to flee.

While this has de facto resolved the territorial dispute, the countries have not officially negotiated a formal peace deal yet.

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)